Outdoor Relax Chairs Compared: Which One Suits You

Guide  /  Relax Chairs

Outdoor Relax Chairs Compared: Which One Suits You

Six single-seat relax and lounge chairs, six genuinely different builds. Here's what actually separates them.

Outdoor Furniture Ideas  ·  6 min read

Same job, six different answers: a single-seat chair built for sitting back rather than sitting up to a table.

A single-seat outdoor relax chair sits in an odd spot in most people's shortlist. It's not a dining chair, and it's rarely bought as part of a full lounge suite. It's the one chair someone actually claims as theirs, for reading, for the first coffee of the day, for sitting somewhere that isn't at a table. We stock six of them, and they solve that problem in genuinely different ways: moulded resin versus woven aluminium, fixed recline versus multi-position, entry-level versus the piece you'd build a whole corner of the yard around. Here's how Doga, Net, Folio, Tolo and NOON actually compare.

No. 01

Entry-Level Moulded Resin: Doga Versus Net

The Nardi Doga Relax Chair and the Nardi Net Lounge Chair are both single-body moulded resin, both made in Italy, and both sit at the accessible end of the range, which makes them easy to confuse. The difference is in the shell design and the recline. Doga has a reclined-back shape moulded into the shell itself, a fixed angle rather than an adjustable one, finished in a horizontal-slat pattern that coordinates with the wider Doga dining and armchair range if you're matching a full setting.

Net takes the same fixed-recline approach but goes deeper into the seat, with a signature square-perforation pattern across the back and seat that lets rain drain straight through rather than pooling, designed by Raffaello Galiotto. Both are genuinely light (around 5 to 6kg), stack for storage, and are built to sit outside year-round without fading. Neither reclines on the fly. If you want an adjustable backrest, that's the next section.

No. 02

Reclining and Rocking: Folio and the Folio Rocking Chair

The Nardi Folio Arm Chair is the one in this range built to move with you. It's a multi-position reclining chair, adjusting from upright to a lounging angle rather than locking you into one recline, with a distinctive ribbed-back shell and a built-in rainwater drainage design. It's still single-body moulded resin like Doga and Net, just with the added mechanism.

• Want a rocking chair, not just a recliner? The Folio Rocking Chair with Cushion adds a curved-runner rocking kit and a full comfort cushion to the same reclining shell, for a genuinely different feel: gentle back-and-forth motion rather than a static lounge position.
• Buying the standard Folio Arm Chair? A rocking-chair conversion kit is available separately if you decide later you want the motion without replacing the chair.

Same reclining shell, two ways to sit in it: upright and adjustable, or rocking with a cushion.

“Fixed recline suits a chair you sit in the same way every time. Multi-position suits one you don't.”

No. 03

Woven Aluminium: Tolo and the Exclusive NOON

Step up in material and the shape of the decision changes completely. The Pebl Tolo Aluminium Lounge Chair with Seat Cushion pairs a powder-coated aluminium frame with hand-woven 6mm Olefin rope and a quick-dry foam cushion, a Belgian design by Robin Delaere for Pebl. It's a genuinely different sitting experience to moulded resin: a woven seat that flexes slightly rather than a rigid shell, in a frame built for coastal exposure.

The NOON Outdoor Lounge Chair uses the same construction logic, powder-coated aluminium and 6mm Olefin rope, but adds Ivory Boucle cushioning and a design pedigree that's exclusive to us: NOON is the work of Belgian studio Bloo, and we're the only Australian retailer that stocks it. If you've read our full NOON collection spotlight, this is the single-seat entry point into that range, priced well under the sofas and modular pieces. Because it's a lower-volume exclusive, it can run to pre-order between shipments, so check current availability before you plan around one.

Side by Side

All Six, Compared

Buying Once

Before You Choose

• Matching an existing setting? Doga and Net both coordinate with their own dining and armchair ranges.
• Want the backrest to move with you? Folio is the only fixed-price option here with a genuine multi-position recline, and it converts to a rocking chair later if you want.
• After a standalone statement piece? Tolo and NOON are woven aluminium rather than moulded resin, a different look and feel entirely, and NOON is the one nobody else in Australia stocks.